Letters to the editor for Wednesday, January 16, 2013

So the Republican plan to address the deficit is to continue to tax the shrinking middle class and the growing working poor at rates up to 3 percent and cut the earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare.

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recordonline.com

Writer

Posted Jan. 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Posted Jan. 16, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

So the Republican plan to address the deficit is to continue to tax the shrinking middle class and the growing working poor at rates up to 3 percent and cut the earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare.

Meanwhile, millionaires and billionaires do not get taxed beyond 35 percent on earned income, and taxed far less on their more common means of increasing wealth via capital gains. Back in the 1940s, wealthier citizens were taxed at 90 percent rates for income past a certain point. Deficit solved, middle class strong and growing, economy booming.

Guess Americans were smarter back then, and perhaps some wealthy Americans were patriotic and happy to give back to their country.

Barbara Kidney

Town of Newburgh

After seeing the board approving a red-light camera system, it will now make me less likely to shop in Middletown.

I was on Long Island after Hurricane Irene. Roads were blocked, some traffic lights not working. A couple of months later, I get a notice I was cited for a red-light camera infraction. I had moved ahead to allow an emergency vehicle to pass with one lane blocked by a felled tree, and that was considered blowing a red light.

What you're not told is that you have to appear in person to defend yourself. It's a nonmoving violation if you pay, which leads me to believe Nassau County installed them as a way to get more cash in the coffers, plain and simple. No points — they just want the cash.

There is no doubt this is being done in Middletown as well, under the guise of making it safer, and in the process denying you "due process" as afforded to other traffic violations.

Nassau has found it to be more expensive than it's worth to use this system. Middletown should learn from Nassau.

I am all for safety by posting police units, not cameras.

Michael Priore

Swan Lake

Early on in these discussions, Albany passed a rule that forbade fracking on land around the New York City watershed and the city of Syracuse. With these two water sources off-limits and New York City-protected, let the conversation begin.

To put some Albany objectivity into these discussions, first have Albany rescind that rule and let every square inch be part of the discussion. How to do it? Call our assemblyman, Kevin Cahill, who is also chairman of the Energy Commission, and tell him to "rescind the rule and give consideration for all residents of New York state."

One simple phone call, and by doing that, force objectivity into these discussions by treating upstate and downstate as equals. The ball is in our court — it's our lives at risk.